Porsche again leads survey of U.S. driver preferences

By Staff, REUTERS

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Porsche brand, for the ninth straight year, led J.D. Power and Associates' annual survey of vehicles drivers find most pleasing to own and drive, while the Land Rover Range Rover crossover was the top individual vehicle in the survey.

Luxury brands claimed the top 10 spots of Power's 2013 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout study, which was released Wednesday by the global marketing information firm. Audi, BMW, Land Rover and Toyota's Lexus followed Porsche, which like Audi is a unit of Volkswagen AG.

General Motors' Cadillac brand, which finished seventh, was the highest ranking U.S. brand. Lincoln, a division of Ford Motor Co, came in ninth.

The influential survey asks more than 83,000 drivers to rate the experience of owning and driving a vehicle during the first 90 days after they bought or leased it. The responses were gathered between February and May, 2013.

The Land Rover Range Rover was the top scoring vehicle in the entire survey, based on 77 different attributes which measure how satisfied drivers are with their vehicle. This year is the first time a large premium car didn't claim the survey's top spot.

Volkswagen AG had the most segment winners with five vehicles from all its brands receiving high marks. Chevrolet had the highest number of segment award winners for any brand with three -- Avalanche, Sonic and Volt.

Daimler AG's Smart unit was the lowest-ranked brand in the survey. Toyota, Jeep, Subaru and Mitsubishi were also in the bottom five.